Post classical; Medieval,
middle or as Strayer calls it- the “3rd wave of civilization” was
full of “Something New, Something Old, Something Blended” (307) which further
transformed civilizations in culture, traditions, languages, politics and the
settlement of new states thru Trade. The new ways of trade where by Land in the
“Silk Roads”, by Sea in the “Indian Ocean Basin” and by “Sand Roads” thru the
Sahara Desert. This new Era had many challenges in addition to environmental,
language and cultural challenges to name a few; yet it was an Era that made a
bigger impact on the urbanization of the empires, kingdoms and
city-states.
New were kingdoms rose,
fell or changed their ways. “The kingdoms of Ghana, Mali, Songhay” were some
new city-states that sustained themselves thru commerce. One major avenue of
Eurasia commerce was the creation of the “Silk Roads” which were the mainstream
pathways for “goods, ideas, technologies, and diseases” (319) all of which
impacted each city-state in a different ways. City-States began to specialize
in products in order to bring their product to market across the land, water
and desert. One example is China, who became known for its’ silk and porcelain
which was highly sought after by the wealthy and elite of other countries.
Religion also played an important role along these roads with its sculptures,
doctrines and teachings which made some peoples pick certain elements of other
religions and adapt them as their own. One religion that became a big part of
the 3rd wave was Islam. It had the “largest, most expansive, and
most influential” impact on all of the countries. It was “viewed as a new
civilization defined by its religion, the world of Islam came to encompass many
other centers of civilizations… ““umbrella”” civilization that “came closer
than any had ever some to uniting all mankind under it ideals”” (308) which makes
us think what if things turned out different.
There were new “smaller
civilizations …along the East African coast… engaged in the commercial life of
the Indian Ocean Basin” (307) creating opportunities for peoples to sell, buy,
travel and potentially conquer other lands. The blending of different
civilizations made the 3rd wave a “mini-globalization” (310) which
had major effect in the world even to this day. Ideas, technologies and
religion from China were blended into Korean, Vietnamese and Japanese cultures.
Korea and Vietnam were the ones that were most influenced by China thus the
isolated islands of Japan took only certain ideas from China and were able to
keep their own identity. Old empires became new as with The Byzantine Empire
which evolved from the Roman Empire retained the Greek language, and cultural
in the “humanities (literature, philosophy, history) “(495) and became very
powerful during its’ time until their defeat 1453 by “Turkic Ottoman Empire,
then known as the ““sword of Islam”” (471). China reasserted its Confucian
Traditions, India retained pattern of caste system.
This Era also finds
itself among survival uncertainty as diseases also spread throughout these
nations. Small pox, measles hit the Roman Empire and Han Dynasty the hard, but
“Black Death” was the epidemic that took “half of the population of Europe”
(324) since peoples did not have the right immunities for certain diseases. Lives
were also lost during peoples travel in the “Silk Roads” to thieves, in the
unsustainable vessels at Sea and in the wretched conditions of the “Sand Roads”,
nevertheless civilizations survived the continued to grow.
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